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© Copyright 2025 Lily Jones, Teacher Advocate
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There’s a lot that needs to change in education. But there are inspiring movements going on too! At Educator Forever, we believe teachers need to be at the forefront of education reform and be empowered to create career pathways that work for them.
Do you ever think about leaving the classroom but have absolutely no idea what else you could do? You may not realize it yet, but you have acquired highly valuable skills throughout your teaching journey, and there is unlimited potential for you to use them. Tune in each week to hear about career opportunities that will help you achieve the income, impact, and freedom you’ve always dreamed of. The best part? You can do all of this without having to leave the world of education entirely.
In addition to showing you the many ways you can expand your impact beyond the classroom, we’ll introduce you to inspiring leaders in education. Want to learn about new research? Looking to get familiar with innovative approaches to teaching and learning? We’ve got you covered.
Your host, Lily Jones, is a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher who transitioned out of the classroom to work in curriculum design, writing content for ed tech companies and even launching her own educational product-based business. After quadrupling her teaching income, she realized she could help other teachers do the same. Now Lily runs Educator Forever, where she empowers teachers to expand their impact beyond the classroom, and Educator Forever Agency, where she works with a team of educators to create inspiring curricula.
For more helpful resources, head to www.educatorforever.com.
Do you ever think about leaving the classroom but have absolutely no idea what else you could do? You may not realize it yet, but you have acquired highly valuable skills throughout your teaching journey, and there is unlimited potential for you to use them. Tune in each week to hear about career opportunities that will help you achieve the income, impact, and freedom you’ve always dreamed of. The best part? You can do all of this without having to leave the world of education entirely.
In addition to showing you the many ways you can expand your impact beyond the classroom, we’ll introduce you to inspiring leaders in education. Want to learn about new research? Looking to get familiar with innovative approaches to teaching and learning? We’ve got you covered.
Your host, Lily Jones, is a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher who transitioned out of the classroom to work in curriculum design, writing content for ed tech companies and even launching her own educational product-based business. After quadrupling her teaching income, she realized she could help other teachers do the same. Now Lily runs Educator Forever, where she empowers teachers to expand their impact beyond the classroom, and Educator Forever Agency, where she works with a team of educators to create inspiring curricula.
For more helpful resources, head to www.educatorforever.com.
154 Episodes
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In this episode, I talk to Donita Grissom, a senior lecturer at at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the book, High Five to Thrive. She is also the CEO of Best Questers, which provides teachers with practical, effective teaching strategies that they can immediately implement in their classrooms to help create resilient, thriving school communities.In this episode, Donita and I talk about her start in education as a K–12 ESOL teacher and how that led to her training other ESOL teachers. She also explains her Hope Theory and her belief in the importance of goal-setting. This interview is full of great tips to reignite your passion for teaching!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode153.
This week on the show we have Ben Somers, the founder of Recess.gg an education platform built for homeschoolers who learn differently. Recess is a kid centered product, and has helped kids publish books on Amazon, win awards at Oxford writing conferences and start amazing businesses.In this episode, Ben and I get into how Ben’s own frustrating experiences with school lead him to pursue education alternatives. He then goes into his goals with his online schooling platform, Recess, which allows students to pick their own classes. He also provides some notable reasons for getting into the homeschooling market.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode152.
This week we speak to Lori Woodley-Langendorff, the co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of All It Takes, a nonprofit that equips youth and mentors with vital emotional intelligence skills. Lori has 30 years experience in education, having worked the majority of it as a middle school counselor before starting All It Takes in 2010 with her daughter, actress Shaylene Woodley. Lori and I have a good time talking about working in education and how it becomes your identity. Then we get into the creation of All It Takes before diving deep into the importance of Social Emotional Learning. We also get into the process of writing her new book, “SEL Muscle Mastery: 6 Tools for Building Resiliency and Connection in Schools and Communities.” Tune in!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode151.
This week’s guests are Dakota Irby and Anne Ishimaru, authors of "Doing the Work of Equity Leadership." Irby, a Professor at the University of Illinois, focuses on improving Black students' experiences through equity-focused leadership. Ishimaru, a Professor at the University of Washington, cultivates leadership among educators and racially minoritized youth.In this episode, they tell Lily how they entered the world of education and what brought them to working to increase equity there. They also discuss writing the book, what they hope it achieves, and what it actually takes to increase equity in learning spaces.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode150.
Alexandra Walsh is the Chief Product Officer at Amplify. She develops leads and implements a strategic vision that delivers product coherence and common platform excellence across Amplify's math, literacy and science product suites. Previously, she was senior vice president and general manager of ELA curriculum, overseeing product development on the company's curriculum platform.In this episode, we discuss how she started teaching in New Orleans after Katrina and leaving the classroom for policy work. We also dive into how policy affects teachers and students, and the need for curriculum that is both research-backed and adaptable to diverse classroom contexts. Lots of big topics are brought up and Alexandra shares important insight.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode149.
Jean Ryoo is the Director of Research of the computer science equity project at UCLA. She is also the lead author of the graphic novel “Power On,” published by MIT Press, which was recently translated into Spanish under the title “Conectados.”We have a fantastic conversation about Jean’s journey, and we get into her mission to create more equitable and humanizing educational experiences. We also get into the challenges of traditional learning methods and how she came to write a graphic novel. It’s a good one (but sorry for some of the noises in the background).For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode148.
Kimberly Gawne is the founder of Star Students, a personalized education service dedicated to empowering K-12 learners through tailored tutoring and homeschooling programs. Kimberly has always been passionate about people and learning, enjoying the challenge of exploring new methods to unlock potential in others. This passion evolved into a deep desire to impart her skills and enthusiasm, blending the art of learning with the essence of guiding others to achieve incredible success.In this episode, Kimberly and I talk about her love of teaching and education, and why she started Star Students. She also gets into the importance of mindset shifts and drops some great tips for those starting their own business after teaching.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode147.
Christina "Pip" Pipkin is the founder of FAYE Learning Center, a microschool in Texas. Pip is a Texas native and dedicated DEI expert in K-12 education, passionately advocating for equitable and inclusive learning environments. With over 15 years of experience as a teacher and implementation specialist, Pip combines deep knowledge of diversity, equity and inclusion with educational technology to craft culturally responsive classrooms.Pip and I talked about the pros and cons of running a microschool, and what makes them successful. She also gets into her story, describing the risks she took to start her school. If you are considering opening a microschool, tune in.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode146.
Matt Bowman is the founder and CEO of OpenED, an educational platform which has served over 100,000 students nationwide. After teaching sixth grade and watching his own five children struggle with standardized education, Matt left a successful career as a tech executive to solve a problem close to his heart: “why does school force every unique child into the same mold for over 15 years?” Open ED, formerly my Tech High, has partnered with public and charter schools to offer families unprecedented flexibility in choosing what, when and how their children learn. In our discussion, Matt and I talk about how he came to start OpenED, how it’s grown, and writing his new book, "Open Education: The Process.”For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode145.
Christine Miles is, an award winning author, a keynote speaker and founder of the Listening Path, a pioneering company in the of field listening intelligence. At the center of her company’s success is a revolutionary system used by Fortune 100 companies and in classrooms across three countries.Christine and I have a wonderful talk about how her childhood motivated her to pursue work that helps people. She explains why she took on the mission to change how we communicate and provide the “gift of understanding.” Also, she provides lots of details on how her program works.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode144.
After spending 17 years in education, Meredith Cooley decided to try something new: copywriting. She started Page and Purpose after the pandemic and leveled her experience as a teacher into helping ed tech companies craft their marketing. Finding success quickly in her new business, she wants to help other educators try copywriting with her new an online course “Classroom to Copywriting.”In this episode, Meredith and I discuss why she left teaching and jumped into marketing. She describes how she applied her teaching experience to copywriting, and the process of starting a business, Lots of helpful information in this one!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode143.
Patrick Mongrain spent ten years teaching middle school history and leadership, and another ten working as as a district-level instructional coach and restorative justice specialist before moving on to professional development. Over the years he’s come to believe that teachers are incredible, but he also created a Moneyball-inspired data collection system to improve their outcomes. It’s worked so well he created the EdChanger Pro app and wrote a book about his findings called “Theory Can Only Take You So Far.”In our discussion, we get into Patrick’s career and how he came to create EdChanger Pro. We also get into the importance of instructional practice and how effective teaching involves focusing on the “how.” If you love teachers as much as Patrick and I do, you’re gonna love this episode.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode142.
Dr. Rick Rodriguez is a first generation Mexican American who has lived through and acknowledges the challenges that individuals and communities of color face across our systems. Guided by these experiences, he co-founded the Rooted Life, a bilingual coaching and consulting business that incorporates research-based frameworks to trigger thinking, strategy, and collaboration. Rick and I had a long conversation about his childhood and the inspiring women in his life — his mother and grandmother. We also get into the systemic barriers in education that were not designed to serve people like him and how that motivated him to work in education. Strap in — it’s a good one!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode141.
Dana Anderson teaches digital citizenship, language arts, and literature to Middle and High School students at Bridgemont International School. She's also served as a kids' and teens' digital content expert for non-profits, tech companies, teacher training programs and schools. Dana is also a writer, a nature and animal lover, and a mom of three.In this episode we discuss Dana's educator journey and what she feels educators need to do to find success in teaching or other fields. She also opines on AI and the possibilities it can provide for teachers.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode140.
Kirk Spahn is a fourth generation educator with more than two decades in the field. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he worked for schoolmaster.net, an early online learning platform based in London.But it was the events of Sept. 11 that inspired him that inspired him to start the Institute for Civic Leadership (ICL), an award winning youth educational nonprofit organization..In this episode, Kirk tells the entire story of ICL’s founding and the challenges of online learning. He also discusses the importance of mentors in a child’s education, how the COVID 19 lockdown affected online learning, and how he’s developed an academy that attracts top student athletes.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode139.
Dr. Emily Levy is the founder and director of EBL coaching, a specialized tutoring program that offers individualized one on one, home, virtual and on site instruction using research based multi sensory techniques.In this episode, Dr. Levy tells me about how after teaching special education, she went to Wall Street and then back to the so-called “family business.“ She also discusses her multi-sensory approach to tutoring and how she finds new clients. It’s a short but informative episode!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode138.
Iuri Melo is a therapist, motivational speaker, and—on particularly exciting days—a “professional teenager whisperer.” He has spent over two decades working closely with families, students and schools, and he's become a trusted voice when it comes to promoting psychological awareness, great relationships and student success. His research led to the creation of SchoolPulse, a text/email service to help kids struggling with mental issues.In our discussion, Iuri and I discuss why he started SchoolPulse. He also talks about his use of adventure therapy, mainly rock-climbing, as a therapeutic tool. Hopefully you’ll walk away from this prioritizing your mental wellness!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode137.
Ronnie Thomas is the founder of Fun Weird Science, an education company built on the belief that STEM lessons can apply all kinds of disciplines. A science teacher with 25 years of experience and two Teacher of the Year awards, Thomas started Weird Fun Science after developing a reputation for engaging and versatile teaching methods.In our discussion, Ronnie and I discuss the efficiency of hands-on learning and why he was inspired by it. We also talk about his mission to expand STEM education in underserved communities and in early education, and his belief in the need for more innovation in schools.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode136.
Craig Randall is the developer and author of “Trust-Based Observations.” He has spent the last 30 plus years in education, working as a counselor, coach, teacher and principal. Now, Craig spends the majority of his time training school leaders all over the globe in the trust-based observation system, transforming the world of teacher observations to a model of trust and support that fosters growth mindsets and teaching innovation.In our discussion, Craig dives into his educator journey, going from teaching to administration. He also criticizes teacher evaluation frameworks like Danielson and Marzano, citing research showing they decrease teacher efficacy. Our conversation will really make you thinking about evaluations.For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode135.
Rebecca McAllister is a certified teacher, literacy specialist, and co-founder of The Active Reader. With over 10 years of classroom experience, Rebecca has always been passionate about helping young learners thrive—but it wasn’t until she became a mom that everything shifted. Teaching her daughter to read made her realize that even as an educator, she had never been shown how to teach reading in a clear, systematic way. That realization led her to structured literacy and Orton-Gillingham training—and lit a fire that hasn’t gone out since.In our episode, Rebecca and I discuss how she came to co-found Active Reader and what she’s done to build the business up. We also get into strategies for improving reading skills and what we’ve seen during our teaching days. A quick but informative episode!For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode134.
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